Tench Coxe
How our Constitution was supposed to work: new evidence comes to light
Judging by the promises of presidential candidates, you might think the federal government is designed to fix whatever ails us: health care, education, crime, infrastructure, the common cold. But the Constitution doesn’t grant the federal government such unlimited...
The founder who told Americans we have a right to military weapons
Does the Constitution’s right to keep and bear arms apply to everyone? Or only to law enforcement and the National Guard? Does the right include so-called “assault weapons?” A newly published document from America’s founding offers a clue. When interpreting the...
The meaning of “militia” in the Second Amendment
This is the second article examining contributions to our understanding of the Constitution from the three brand new volumes of the Documentary History of the Ratification of the Constitution of the United States. My first article observed that probably the greatest...
More evidence the feds are exceeding their powers
Scholars working on the Documentary History of the Ratification of the Constitution are approaching the end of the project they began in the 1970s, yet they continue to publish new material. They have just issued three new volumes of ratification-era papers from...